Flexible tube or hose



Aug. 29, 1961 A. E. ROHDE 2,998,028

FLEXIBLE TUBE GR HOSE Filed July 21, 1958 mi!!! Il!! Il!! Il, Il e!! Il Il Il ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 2,998,028 FLEXIBLE TUBE R HOSE Adolf Ernst Rohde, Sulldorfer Landstr. 252, Hamburg-Blankenese, Germany Filed July 21, 1958, Ser. No. 749,687 'Claims priority, application Germany July 30, 1957 7 Claims. (Cl. 13S-109) My invention concerns a tlexible tube or hose which can be bent into various shapes such as angle pieces and which remains in Ia given position -until it is rebent into -another direction, e.g. into a straight line or into a different angle, curve or the like.

Tubes or hoses of this kind thatV may be used e.g. as conduits of cables for lamps on worktables, as pipe lines for compressed -air and especially as conduits for a cooling medium on machine tools, usually consist nowadays of wound metal strips yand are relatively expensive on account of the stainless steel to be used.` In addition, they are quite heavy so that they, especially after a certain wear, do not retain the shapes into Which they had been bent. They have then to be tied up provisionally or secured otherwise, because they lose their stableness of form yand this -again could cause breakdowns of service and inconveniences.

The main object of my invention is a novel construction of a tube or hose that avoids the above mentioned disadvantages. More particularly it consists in encasing loosely one or more exible and non-resilient wires, which are -able to hold their shape into the Wall of a supple tube, where they longitudinally are shiftable.

The Wall of the tube or hose may preferably consist of any synthetic material such as polyvinyl chloride or other molded materials or of rubber. Soft copper has been proved to be a very suitable metal for the wires that are encased, though the invention is not restricted to this material.

As a rule, the arrangement will be made so that a plurality, e.g. three or four, of wires will be disposed equidistantly on a circle coaxial with the axis of the tube or hose. Anyhow, any other arrangements would be possible, too, f.i. in such a Way that the lumen of the tube is slightly oi center with regard to the axis of the tube and that a single, relatively thick wire is inserted into the thicker part of the wall of the tube.

In order that the tube may be bent in all directions and, if required, may also be twisted a bit, the encased wires must remain freely movable; they dont form a rigidly connected unit lwith the wall of the tube. To this end it is expedient that small channels or conduits be formed in the wall of the tube for freely inserting the Such conduits may easily be produced when making the tube by an extrusion process. Of course, provision must be made to close the wire conduits at the end faces of tubepiece that have been cut off from a length of hose material. This can easily be done by the fittings that are to be attached to the ends of the tube, thus, limiting the movement of the wire inserts in a natural way without the use of 4any special closing members.

My invention is illustrated by way of example in the drawings which show two embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section of the end of a tube or hose according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-section taken on the line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross-section of another embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the numeral 5 generally designates a tube or hose that is made of polyvinyl chloride. On a circle concentric with the axis of the lumen 6 of the tube, four small bores 7, 8, 9 and 10 are provided in -the wall of the tube. In each of these bores there is .ICC

located a wire 11 of soft copper in such a manner that it may longitudinally move therein.

The end of tube 5 is provided with a fitting 12 in the shape of a sleeve which is rigidly secured to the tube by means of indentations 13 and 14, and bears at its front end a threaded extension 15 with a locking nut 16 for attaching the tube to any kind of apparatus. The extension 15 could also be provided at its rear end with a nipple that projects into the tube which in this way is tightly secured between the nipple yand the sleeve 12. The other end of the tube-not illustrated in the drawingscould be provided with lan outlet nozzle.

If the tube shown in FIG. l is bent in any direction, the shape of the wires 11 will be changed correspondingly and, since the Wires do not spring back, but rather retain their shape (until they are :again bent in another direction), the tube retains the given shape fas an angle, curve, helix or the like. As the wires 11 do not lie in the axis of the tube, they are stressed ydilferently according to whether they lie on the outside or on the inside of a curve or angle. Since they, however, can move relatively unrestrictedly in the conduits 7, 8, 9 and 10, they can readily adapt themselves to any contingency. In FIG. 1 there is shown, only for reasons of illustration, how wire 11 projects from conduit 7 'at the end face of the tube, whereas the wire of conduit 9 has moved a short distance in the opposite direction. These movements of the wires are limited Iautomatically by the wires coming into contact with the ttings 12 or any other closure of the tube.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the invention where the lumen 17 of the tube or hose 18 is disposed slightly excentrically with relation to the axis ofthe outer cylindrical surface of the tube. A single conduit 20 is provided in the thicker part 19 of the tube wall in which conduit a corresponding wire 1.1 is placed.

It is to be understood that the basic idea of the invention may be embodied otherwise than has been described with reference to the drawings. Thus, it would be possible in such cases where the tube is to be bent only in one plane, to use ilat strip-like inserts instead of circular wires; in case of a plurality of such iiat wires, these must be disposed in such a way that all strips lie with their flat sides in planes parallel to one another.

What I claim is:

1. A flexible tube comprising an elongated tubular body of a supple non-metallic material having at least one longitudinal bore within the Wall thereof, `and a ilexible and non-resilient Wire encased loosely in and shiftable longitudinally relative to said bore, and extending within said bore through -a bendable portion of the length of said body, -said wire upon Ia bending of said body portion conforming to and maintaining the shape of the bend.

2. A flexible tube comprising Ian elongated tubular body of a supple non-metallic material having at least one longitudinal bore Within the wall thereof, `and a iiexible 'and non-resilient wire encased loosely in said bore and extending within said bore through a bendable portion of the length of saidy body, said Wire being deformable ,in and freely shiftable longitudinally relative to said bore by bending of said body to hold the tube in bent position.

3. A iiexible tube comprising an elongated tubular body of supple non-metallic material having a plurality of longitudinal bores within the wall thereof, said bores being arranged symmetrically about the axis of said body, and a plurality of flexible and non-resilient wires encased loosely in said bores and each extending within one of said bores through a bendable portion of the length of said body, said wires being deformable in and shiftable longitudinally relative -to said bores by bending of said body to hold the tube in bent position.

4. A exible tube comprising an elongated cylindrical tending within said .bore through a benda-ble portion of vthelei'lgth lof said body and being deformable in Vand shiftable longitudinally vrelative to `said bore by bending of said body to hold the tube in bent position.

' A 5'.V `A flexibleU tube comprising an elongated tubular body of ilexible ,synthetic plastic material having at least t one longitudinal bore within the wall thereof, and a flexible .and'non-resilient metal wire encased loosely in said bore and'extending within said bore through a Ybendable portion of the length of' said body, said wire being deforxnable in and shitable longitudinally relative :to said bore'by'v .bending of said body tohold the tube in bent position. `f v of said body, said wire being deformable in and shiftable f6. d`A flexible `tube comprising .an elongated Vliexible 20 Itubular body of polyvinyl'ohloiide having at lest one longitudinal bore within the Wall thereof, and a exible copper wire encasedloosely -in said bore and extending longitudinally relative to said bore by bending of said body to hold the tube in bent condition.

7. A exible tube comprising an elongated tubular body of a supple non-metallic material having `at least one longitudinal bore vvithin'the Wall thereof, and a flexible and nongresiliengt v vire 4encased loosely in and shiftable longitudinally relative to said bore and extending within said bore through af berldalrflel portion of the length of said body, and abutment means litted over the ends of said body to limit the longitudinal movements of said shiftable wire.

Refel'jenes Cited in the tile of this patent -UNITED STATES PATENTS 392,040 Lee Q occ. 3o, 188s V27045556 Blish Mar. 22, 1955 v,2,800,145 vPeierls et al. July 23, 1957 2,922,613 'Beaohamet al. L Ian. 26, 1960 Y FonnIGN VPATENTS 447,816 Great Britain May 2,6, y193,6 Y647,226 ,Great Britain g j Dees, 1950 321,983 Germany V Q....., Sept. l2, 1885 

